JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE QUOTES IV

French philosopher and moralist (1645-1696)

There are certain people who so ardently and so passionately desire a thing, that from dread of losing it they leave nothing undone to make them lose it.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères


There are certain things in which mediocrity is intolerable: poetry, music, painting, public eloquence. What torture it is to hear a frigid speech being pompously declaimed, or second-rate verse spoken with all a bad poet's bombast!

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères

Tags: mediocrity


The pleasure of criticism takes away from us the pleasure of being deeply moved by very fine things.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères


It is too much for a husband to have a wife who is a coquette and sanctimonious as well; she should select only one of those qualities.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Personal Merit", Les Caractères


When a plain-looking woman is loved, it is certain to be very passionately ; for either her influence on her lover is irresistible, or she has some secret and more irresistible charms than those of beauty.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Tags: women


A man in health questions whether there is a God, and he also doubts whether it be a sin to have intercourse with a woman, who is at liberty to refuse ; but when he falls ill, or when his mistress is with child, she is discarded, and he believes in God.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Freethinkers", Les Caractères


That man is good who does good to others; if he suffers on account of the good he does, he is very good; if he suffers at the hands of those to whom he has done good, then his goodness is so great that it could be enhanced only by greater sufferings; and if he should die at their hands, his virtue can go no further: it is heroic, it is perfect.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Personal Merit", Les Caractères


A man of variable mind is not one man, but several men in one; he multiplies himself as often as he changes his taste and manners; he is not this minute what he was the last, and will not be the next what he is now; he is his own successor.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Mankind", Les Caractères


Love begins with love ; and the warmest friendship cannot change even to the coldest love.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Tags: love


Death happens but once, yet we feel it every moment of our lives; it is worse to dread it than to suffer it.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Mankind", Les Caractères

Tags: death


The same principle leads us to neglect a man of merit that induces us to admire a fool.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

Les Caractères

Tags: merit


It is often easier as well as more advantageous to conform ourselves to other men's opinions than to bring them over to ours.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères

Tags: opinions


It is better to expose ourselves to ingratitude than to neglect our duty to the distressed.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Tags: ingratitude


Two persons will not be friends long if they are not inclined to pardon each other's little failings.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères

Tags: faults


Modesty is to merit, what shade is to figures in a picture; it gives it strength and makes it stand out.

JEAN DE LA BRUYERE

The Characters or Manners of the Present Age

Tags: modesty


The fear of old age disturbs us, yet we are not certain of becoming old.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Mankind", Les Caractères

Tags: old age


The same common-sense which makes an author write good things, makes him dread they are not good enough to deserve reading.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Works of the Mind", Les Caractères


The true spirit of conversation consists more in bringing out the cleverness of others than in showing a great deal of it yourself.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Society and of Conversation", Les Caractères

Tags: conversation


If it be usual to be strongly impressed by things that are scarce, why are we so little impressed by virtue?

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of Personal Merit", Les Caractères

Tags: virtue


It is weakness which makes us hate an enemy and seek revenge, and it is idleness that pacifies us and causes us to neglect it.

JEAN DE LA BRUYÈRE

"Of the Affections", Les Caractères

Tags: enemies